Featured Article: Has the Tide Turned? - By Matt Ward - http://www.raptureready.com/soap2/ward14.html Sometimes things happen which are clearly prophetically significant. Netanyahu’s recent election victory is one of those things. It even felt prophetic, if that were possible. The manner in which Netanyahu won certainly seems to indicate that God’s hand was indeed upon these elections. The Bible tells us that it is God who establishes kings and rulers, it is, “…He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others” (Daniel 2:21). The manner in which Netanyahu won was significant and some are saying unprecedented in terms of the electoral “swing” toward one candidate and away from other. This especially, when considering how close even exit polls said the election was going to be. In the end, it wasn’t close at all. It was a whitewash. The most important result of this election is the emergence of a much more powerful Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu now has the mandate and the obvious popular backing to move forward with his vision. His vision over how to tackle the social integration issues within Israel, how to manage the Israeli economy, how to manage the “Peace Process” and deal with ISIS. His vision for how and when to confront Iran. The response of the United States government has been scathing. Instead of the customary congratulations and well-wishing we have been met with a barrage of media headlines relating how disgusted the Obama Administration is with Netanyahu for abandoning his commitment to a two state solution and for what the White House described as “divisive” campaign rhetoric towards the end of this election. The Israel that exists today under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu is on a direct collision course with the Obama Administration over a number of key issues. The first is the peace process. Netanyahu’s electoral statement that he will not allow the emergence of a Palestinian State during his next term in office has rocked the US State Department. They believe this statement alone has destroyed nearly two decades worth of international diplomacy. They have also publicly stated that they now doubt the integrity of Netanyahu’s past dealings with John Kerry during his intensive Middle Eastern diplomacy of the fifteen months. The Palestinians have predictably replied that they will now not be a part of any future discourse over the establishment of a Palestinian State, where Israel is involved. The so called “Peace Process” is effectively dead. This issue on its own has rocked Israeli-US relations more anything else that has come before it. The situation is further exacerbated by Netanyahu’s bold pledge to continue to build on so called “occupied” Israeli land. Josh Earnest, Obama’s spokesman, has recommitted the White House to a two-state solution as the only viable way to end the current Israeli- Palestinian impasse. Netanyahu’s campaign pledges, which I believe he will follow through on, put him directly at odds with current White House policy. Building will continue, the subsequent international outrage will grow and grow. Obviously, despite previous Palestinian duplicity in previous negotiations with Israel, and despite all that may occur in the immediate future, (like new intifada?) the whole blame for the collapse of this peace process will be laid firmly at the door of Netanyahu and Israel. They will be roundly and brutally condemned on an international stage for this and it is highly likely that America will now withdraw its veto of support for Israel at the United Nations. This will open the way for an avalanche of criticism, resolutions and even sanctions.

The situation is now so bad that Israel, for the first time in its existence, actually recognizes that the United States may not in fact “have its back.” The fact that Israel can no longer rely on the backing of the United States is being talked of today, on Sky News for example, and just in passing, as if it was obvious to all that America no longer is going to act as the security guarantors of the Jewish State.

Like a Flood It is said in the Bible that when the end comes it will come, “…as a flood.” (Daniel 9:26).

This means that, birth pains aside, when God decides the actual period of the end has been reached things will happen very, very quickly. They will happen like a flood. Noah preached for over 100 years to a disbelieving world that judgment was coming and when the end did come, it happened unbelievably quickly. God Himself called time on that world and decided that Noah would preach repentance no more and it was God Himself who shut the door of the Ark after shepherding the family aboard. Then, in a very short space of time, it was all over. The rains came and swept all mankind away, except Noah and his family who were safe in the Ark, an obvious picture of Jesus delivering the Church during the Tribulation period.

So with Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah. When the end came it happened quickly and was over almost in an instant, (Genesis 19). Prior to this judgment angels visited Abraham warning of this destruction, one of who is almost certain to be the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. Abraham pleaded for the life of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Ultimately, only Lot and select members of his family were delivered from the wrath of God and when the end came, it came swiftly and the destruction was so total and complete that even today we know the general area of Sodom and Gomorrah, we do not know the exact location because there is nothing left. The prophetic clock has lurched forward. The situation between Obama and Netanyahu is now irrevocable. Obama worked very publicly against Netanyahu during this election and it is an open secret that he despises him. Netanyahu likewise was known to have written off relations with America should he win this new term in office. There is a fire storm coming between the United States and Israel. Both nations are being led by individuals whose trajectories put them on a direct collision course. I believe that Benjamin Netanyahu has been raised up by God to be the leader of Israel during this period in history and I can see difficult times ahead for the Jewish State in the immediate future. He is possibly the Churchill for his own age and is one of the very few people in the world who actually knows and understands the dangers Israel face in the multi-threat environment it finds itself in.

But Israel is not subject to the norms of military history because Israel will be defended by God Himself and I believe that God is turning His face once again back to the Jewish people. I believe that He is going to allow them to go to a place of international isolation where their only remaining option is to look to the God of the ages for their own deliverance. I believe this in itself is a strong indicator that the end of the Church Age is approaching, rapidly.

Barack Obama has set himself in direct opposition to a man, I believe, is God’s current chosen leader of Israel. Not only that but Obama has worked actively and aggressively to unseat him and influence the very nature of Jewish society.

Obama has stated that in his remaining tenure as President of the United States he intends to aggressively pursue a peace settlement between the Palestinians and Israel. This will not happen now under Netanyahu yet Obama continues to actively plan to divide Israel and Jerusalem. He has made no secret of this.

I can almost hear the pages of history turning.

Jesus tells us that when we see these things beginning to come to pass we should, “…lift up our heads, for our salvation draws nigh…” (Luke 21:28). I think we should all be looking up.